No, I'm not rich. Please stop insinuating that I am.

[Sirius]

She's asked me a few times why we don't run out and get a new luxury car because we can "obviously" afford it. I'd rather have the money in the bank than in the garage.

I hope this is exactly what you told her.

Yes indeed. Anything my sister does financially - I notice that I am in Opposite Land.

Over the years, I've figured out the benefits of preventive maintenance. It works on EVERYTHING. Taking good care of 'things' and keeping them in good shape is essential if you want to get your investment out of them. This goes from houses to cars to coffee machines.

She apparently doesn't do this -

POD BIG TIME, Zoltar.  Mr. Sirius and I are both still driving the same cars we had when we got married in 1998.  Mine is a 95, his is a 96.  That's part of why I learned to do some of the basics on a car myself - it doesn't strain my femininity to check my oil or add wiper fluid, and keeping track of your car's oil and checking on the fluid in the radiator are easy, cheap things to do to keep a car running. 

I could go on and on about this subject, but I'll stop here.

[Clara Bow]

See, I've said "must be nice" or a derivation of it but I meant it as in "WOW!! That is COOL! Tell me all about it!" I don't nose into finances...who cares if you're rich, poor or with me in the middle? I hope that doesn't come off rude, but I like to hear about folks' good times...who knows, I might end up going where they went if it sounds fun!

My mother likes to remind me not to spend all my money every time I tell her I've splurged. Gee Mom, you mean I have to pay bills? Like I have been for about sixteen years now? DANG. Who knew?

[Wonderflonium]

I recently spent a lot of money to save my cat's life. (Totally worth it; my baby is healthy and happy again.) I wanted to scream. The reason I had the money to pay for her was because I spent what I'd been saving for a laptop and furniture on her health care. I do not have a money tree in the backyard. I just hate that people don't seem to get that it's about choices.

[Venus193]

I recently spent a lot of money to save my cat's life. (Totally worth it; my baby is healthy and happy again.) I wanted to scream. The reason I had the money to pay for her was because I spent what I'd been saving for a laptop and furniture on her health care. I do not have a money tree in the backyard. I just hate that people don't seem to get that it's about choices.

I totally get it.  I spent a lot to save Tiger 4 years ago.

[BuffaloFang]

An ex-coworker of mine used to give me this all the time.

My DH and I don't spend much on clothes.  We've only recently stopped buying only store-brand food.  I rarely drive so we can save on gas.  I rarely eat out, don't have a coffee habit, and just generally am cheap about everything.

Except vacations.  We both try to get out of the country at least once a year, sometimes twice if my DH has mileage/hotel points built up.  After a few vacations, my coworker, who had designer clothing, refused to eat leftovers, etc., outright demanded, "How much do you make!  You have to make more than I do!  How else can you afford this!?" 

I just shrugged and said, "I doubt it.  I just don't have anythign else I want to spend my money on"

[Wonderflonium]

An ex-coworker of mine used to give me this all the time.

My DH and I don't spend much on clothes.  We've only recently stopped buying only store-brand food.  I rarely drive so we can save on gas.  I rarely eat out, don't have a coffee habit, and just generally am cheap about everything.

Except vacations.  We both try to get out of the country at least once a year, sometimes twice if my DH has mileage/hotel points built up.  After a few vacations, my coworker, who had designer clothing, refused to eat leftovers, etc., outright demanded, "How much do you make!  You have to make more than I do!  How else can you afford this!?" 

I just shrugged and said, "I doubt it.  I just don't have anythign else I want to spend my money on"

That's awesome! I wish I could do that, but I don't have anyone to travel with me and I don't like going to foreign countries alone.

I can't believe she said that to you... well, no, the sad part is that I'm actually not surprised. I just wish I were. 

[delphinium]

When DH and I moved and bought some new furniture, my sister said, "When did you get rich?"  Luckily, she said it in front of DH who is NEVER at a loss for words who said, "Well, we didn't go to Florida for 3 months in the winter and don't belong to a country club."  That shut her up...lol

[Elfmama]

My brother's wife is from a third-world country.  In spite of all evidence to the contrary over the last 30 years, she believes that all Americans are rich.  She spends Brother's Navy pension like it was water, and when it runs out in the middle of the month, she goes whining to our parents.  Who, of course, are rich because they are Americans.

$200 sneakers are 'better' than $20 sneakers, simply because they cost 10x more.  (Never mind that they wear out at the same rate...)  This goes down the line with everything.  If you get a widget on sale, you got a good deal, even though you may have three perfectly serviceable widgets at home already.  But the new widget is 'better' because it is new.

Because ALL Americans are rich, and this is how rich people spend money.   

[araigne]

There's "rich" and then there's "wealthy". You can be wealthy with or without money. It's all about attitude and priorities. Read "The Millionaire Next Door" and/or "The Millionaire Mind", both very interesting and eye-opening.

I was taught that it's very rude to discuss someone else's financial situation.

[toontownnutter]

I'd just say "I've been saving for ages"

WPMO is people who tell me I'm "lucky" to have been able to buy a house. I didn't feel real "lucky" when I went without a hair cut for two years while saving up to by said house.

[Nora]

I'd just say "I've been saving for ages"

WPMO is people who tell me I'm "lucky" to have been able to buy a house. I didn't feel real "lucky" when I went without a hair cut for two years while saving up to by said house.

The same way we don't feel "lucky" we can take a trip on our anniversary, because we don't have a big tv (one my parents gave us, and has really bad sound, but works), won't be buying ourselves big gifts for christmas, spend very little on clothes, cut our own hair, make most dinners from scratch and with cheap ingredients (healty, but not always what you feel like having for dinner...) etc etc.

Not lucky, just good at prioritizing!

[KenveeB]

I'd just say "I've been saving for ages"

WPMO is people who tell me I'm "lucky" to have been able to buy a house. I didn't feel real "lucky" when I went without a hair cut for two years while saving up to by said house.

The same way we don't feel "lucky" we can take a trip on our anniversary, because we don't have a big tv (one my parents gave us, and has really bad sound, but works), won't be buying ourselves big gifts for christmas, spend very little on clothes, cut our own hair, make most dinners from scratch and with cheap ingredients (healty, but not always what you feel like having for dinner...) etc etc.

Not lucky, just good at prioritizing!

I like that phrase!  I usually use the similar "Not lucky, just good at budgeting."

[boxy]

I thought I was alone! 

My SO and I are very careful with our money.  We live in a house we can afford, don't buy lavish gifts, drive smaller and older cars, have usable wardrobes (i.e., no clothes that we don't wear), and only eat out once a week.  This commitment to having less allows me to not work full time and still gives us enough money to do a nice vacation every year.  Sometimes we go on a cruise, sometimes we fly somewhere and just spend a week together. 

We have one set of former friends who blow through money like it grows on trees.  I've NEVER seen anyone spend money like they do.  They'd ask, "well where'd you go this time?!?" in that nasty tone and I'd find myself wanting to talk about anything other than our vacation.   What's crazy is even when travel we are still very careful with how we do it, choosing cruises (bang for your buck) or staying in hotels with kitchens so we don't eat out, etc.  We always travel off-season which also lowers the overall cost dramatically.  When speaking with these former friends I would find myself doing just what I've written above, talking about how careful we are with money.  I hated that they assumed we were rolling in the dough.  It was just that we planned and stayed true to our budget.

We ended up deliberately drifting away from these people because of money issues and their constant dogging on us because they assumed we were well off. 

While I miss the good times (and there were) the constant money talk just wore me down.  It's a lot less stressful not hanging out with those guys.

[Germane Jackson]

I heard this one tonight for the umpteenth time..

DH and I were struggling financially for about 2 years, but work picked up and we moved to an apartment where the rent was about 1/3 less than the previous apartment. We find ourselves being able to afford small luxuries we didn't have, such as going out for a meal once or twice a month and so forth. DH got it in his head he really really really wanted an iPhone. One of the local providers was doing a special offer on them if you signed up for an 18 month contract. He got his beloved iPhone..then he felt guilty that he spoiled himself and went and bought me a Samsung Omnia II. DH will take the phone out of his pocket when he sits. Waiters and waitresses will come up and and say 'Ooo, is that an iPhone? Wish I had that kind of money'. DH works hard, he doesn't have a glamorous great paying job, it's just that we save and save. Even his friends say things like 'Oh they must be paying you too much money'. Tonight it happened again, we ran into 2 of DH's friends and they saw both our phones and one said 'oooh, must be nice to have money to throw around.' Yes it's said in jest but it makes me squirm. I didn't even ask for a darn phone, I hardly go out, LOL.

 DH and I went out for a meal tonight and he went to the toilet. He left his phone with me and the waiter said 'Ohh, nice iPhone, those are expensive..' I had to say 'Oh not really, they were on offer about a month ago and he got a special price for signing up a new contract with the company' It's true..though but it's kind of embarrassing to be singled out like that. We're definitely not rich people, far from it. We hardly  buy anything unless it's a necessity so it's ok to splash out on a treat every now and again. What's all that hard work for if you can't enjoy it sometimes?

[ShadowLady]

Tonight it happened again, we ran into 2 of DH's friends and they saw both our phones and one said 'oooh, must be nice to have money to throw around.'

To this, I would reply in a slightly injured tone of voice, "We're not throwing money around, we scrimped and saved for months to be able to buy this!".